My Egg Noodles

Firstly, I need some help. I’ve been considering setting up another site profiling the different restaurants I dine at during my travels, what do you guys think? Should I post my restaurant reviews here or on another domain? Please leave your thoughts in the comments!

In the mean time, I couldn’t resist publishing this review of the Halia restaurant in Hanoi – The best restaurant I’ve had the pleasure of dinning at during my 10 days in Hanoi.

The Halia restaurant in Hanoi, a sister restaurant to another based in Singapore, is slightly off the beaten track but is worth every dong in the taxi to experience the amazing food on offer with the best service I have ever had in Vietnam, or in fact, Asia!

The Halia restaurant is located in the middle of a business/apartment block in the business district, it’s not that easy to find but just ask someone around Pacific place and they’ll guide you. Due to the shit location, we were the only people in the restaurant, or should I say the little alfresco dinning area that housed 4 tables. As I told the manager, it’s a real shame he chose the location he did as this restaurant would be packed every night otherwise!

We were given the a la carte menu, plus a tasting menu that included 7 of the restaurants signature dishes, with an optional 5 wine pairings. I quickly glanced at the tasting menu and can only remember seeing Foie Gras Creme brulee and Tuna with black pepper crust, before I gave the menu back to the lovely waitress and told her that me and the missus will go for the tasting menu.

I’ve never experienced dining at a restaurant and tasting lot’s of small dishes before, and not knowing what was on the menu, it was very exciting! I love trying new foods, so this was a great opportunity to try lot’s at one sitting. I’m now a huge fan of tasting menus :)

The price of the set menu was a very reasonable $50, with an additional $28 if you had the 5 wine pairings. Of course, I went for the wine parings as well so that I could try wines that I would not normally order myself.

The wines were great, 3 whites, 1 red and a desert wine – I would have preferred to have seen an extra red in the mix, but as they were paired with the individual dishes, I couldn’t really moan. Saying that, all the wines were excellent.

Okay, let’s get onto the 7 courses (there were 9 actually if you include the chefs complimentary dishes).

This piece of fish and the creamy, mustardy sauce set the meal of perfectly!

These Scallops were so fresh and with the cheese sauce coating them, they just melted in the mouth.

This is the Tuna with the black pepper crust. Simply excellent.

This was very interesting. A foire gras creme brulee with a superb ginger sponge cake. Not sweet, just the right balance.

The mixture of fruit, noodles and a great prawn satay made this one of the highlights of our meal!

This wasn’t that great… a complimentary dish from the chef. It tasted like a pizza smoothie.

This slapped me right in the face. I was on my 3rd glass of wine when this arrived, and it was like I was instantly transported to Japan after being in France. Didn’t really go well with the rest of the food we had, but was still good. Ahh, it was fish in a fresh garden vegetable soup.

This was the highlight of the meal, and I was such a lucky bugger that my missus was to full to eat her’s due to the the wine and all the food we had previously, so I got to eat her portion as well! The lamb was cooked perfectly. Gorgeous!

Here we have a warm chocolate cake, fruits and a slab of home made ginger ice-cream. The chocolate sponge cake had a warm chocolate sauce filling that was great, and paired so well with the desert wine.

A freshly baked warm sponge cake with a postatio cookie – a great way to finish our meal of with our coffee.

The Halia restaurant in Hanoi was excellent, I loved the concept of the tasting menu, the staff were so friendly (the management come over and set with us for a while after we had a meal) and the food and wines were outstanding. If you want an evening of specialness – the Halia restaurant is the place to go!